CA-SCARY ISLANDS

TENER-GRIEF

The defence teams claimed the cases against the two men "caught" by the group should be dropped due to the way the evidence against them was gathered.

Similar cases around the country would have collapsed if the judge at Newcastle Crown Court ruled against Dark Justice.

Mr Justice Langstaff said there was no legal requirement for the activities by the group to be subjected to controls.

He added that members of Dark Justice were acting as private individuals and had not been asked by the police to conduct their activities.

The judge said: "The police have neither expressly nor implicitly authorised members of Dark Justice to act as Covert Human Intelligence Sources, nor invited them expressly or implicitly to do so.

"The members of Dark Justice have acted as private citizens throughout.

"Authorisation of them by any public authority to act as a covert human intelligence source was and is not required by law.

"The provisions of RIPA are directed towards the behaviour of public authorities rather than private citizens. There is no legal requirement for their activities to be subject to any of the controls that might have been a condition of authorisation."

Justice Langstaff said arguments around entrapment in relation such group should be dealt with on a case to case basis.

He added: "There may remain an argument that in doing what they did, Dark Justice did not act in the public interest to reduce crime, but rather acted in a manner contrary to the public interest by helping to create it where it might not otherwise have occurred."

The judge said the proceedings against the two men who brought the arguments to court would continue.

A number of similar cases which had been put on hold until the judge's decision will now continue through the court process.

Dark Justice is an anonymous group consisting of two men who pose as kids online to snare people trying to meet children.

The men claim to be underage children when adults contact their fake profile and turn up with a video camera and the police en route if any meeting is arranged.

Speaking after the ruling, Dark Justice said: "We are members of the public and have never been employed by the police or any government agency.

"We do this because we are concerned citizens who worry about the future of our children.

"If we weren't proactively catching these people it would be real children, real victims.

During the legal arguments high ranking members of Northumbria Police submitted evidence.

Detective Superintendent Michael Jones said in a statement that members of Dark Justice are not encouraged in the activities they do.